'toki e ni tawa mi:'maybe 'jan li lon'Not sure if this repetition for emphasis or just "very many" but at least in the latter case. 'tenpo pi mute mute'more like 'kam jo' than 'weka' since he keeps the fish presumably."on voyages of wet feet? "at the beginning time, two of the last times" ? neither structure nor point too clear.probably just 'ona tu''toki e ni tawa jan lili' (prep phrase after DO)"salajo' doesn't appear to be a propername, so not fit to go in here. But loval color and all... 'nimi 'Salajo' 'anu pona ala' 'kama tawa jan.'kama tawa tomo jo ala e kala. "the tool is a round line and a fish distant shaft and a fish fighting tool and a cloth front" ? "this cloth front is slight damaged and makes the shaft of the boat a circle.""The sight of this cloth thinks aloud that it defeats this man"I haven't checked the English, but a lot of this is pretty clear, though some is very obscure.

lon tawa telo pi luka telo = in the water current of the water arm (loosely meaning Gulf Stream)

janKipo wrote:"at the beginning time, two of the last times" ? neither structure nor point too clear.

tenpo open la – tu pi tenpo pini ni la = at the beginning, (i.e.) half of that past time

In the original, the old man "had gone 84 days now without taking a fish". But "in the first40 days", that is, half of that time, "a boy had been with him". I thought I should try conveying such meaning without using numbers. Thus "tu pi tenpo pini ni la" for "40 days" and "tenpo mun suli mute la" (for several months) for "84 days". Do you reckon any other way to say this without resorting to figures?

janKipo wrote:"salajo' doesn't appear to be a propername, so not fit to go in here. But loval color and all... 'nimi 'Salajo'

I tried to tokeponize this word: "salao", as found in the original text as: "But after forty days without afish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitelyand finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky [...]"

janKipo wrote:"the tool is a round line and a fish distant shaft and a fish fighting tool and a cloth front" ? "this cloth front is slight damaged and makes the shaft of the boat a circle.""The sight of this cloth thinks aloud that it defeats this man"I haven't checked the English, but a lot of this is pretty clear, though some is very obscure.

lon tawa telo pi luka telo = in the water current of the water arm (loosely meaning Gulf Stream)

ken la 'linja telo tawa' (or 'tawa telo') Not sure I would have gotten it even then but this is close to a river in the ocean

janKipo wrote:"at the beginning time, two of the last times" ? neither structure nor point too clear.

tenpo open la – tu pi tenpo pini ni la = at the beginning, (i.e.) half of that past time

In the original, the old man "had gone 84 days now without taking a fish". But "in the first40 days", that is, half of that time, "a boy had been with him". I thought I should try conveying such meaning without using numbers. Thus "tu pi tenpo pini ni la" for "40 days" and "tenpo mun suli mute la" (for several months) for "84 days". Do you reckon any other way to say this without resorting to figures?

Well, 'tu pi tenpo pini' does mean anything like "half that time" or much else that I can see:"in two of the now past" at best. 'tenp mun mute' is enough for everal months, no need for 'suli' which is about length, not number. tenpo mun mute la ona li kma ala jo e kala. wan napa wan pi tenpo ni la jan li li poka ona.'

janKipo wrote:"salajo' doesn't appear to be a proper name, so not fit to go in here. But local color and all... 'nimi 'Salajo'

I tried to tokeponize this word: "salao", as found in the original text as: "But after forty days without afish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitelyand finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky [...]"

sounds like some extreme version of 'nasa'

janKipo wrote:"the tool is a round line and a fish distant shaft and a fish fighting tool and a cloth front" ? "this cloth front is slightly damaged and makes the shaft of the boat a circle.""The sight of this cloth thinks aloud that it defeats this man"I haven't checked the English, but a lot of this is pretty clear, though some is very obscure.

That does clarify things but it is a bit hard to get out of the blue. maybe 'sike linja' (not sure), 'palisa pi weka kala' pretty surely, similarly, 'ilo pi utala kala' 'sinpin len' is ok but totally misses the point of a sail, to catch the wind and propel the boat. This sounds like a cabana. given "sail", mast is clear. But, as I say, I don't fish -- or sail.

About my current choice for sail (len suli pi tawa pana kon), it comes from the idea that a sail gives wind to the vessel [li pana e kon tawa tomo tawa telo] so that it can move [tawa]. In this sense, we could also say the vessel receives the wind because of/from the sail: len suli pi tawa kama jo kon (the great cloth for wind-getting) or even len suli pi tawa jo kon (the great cloth for wind-containing). Ultimately, we could also call it the great cloth of/for water movement [len suli pi (tawa) tawa telo (?)].